U.S. President Barack Obama has said North Korea is bound to collapse and the Internet will find its way into the isolated nation and spread information that will undercut the authoritarian regime, inviting a harsh condemnation from the country.

Obama made the remark in an interview on YouTube on Jan. 22, stressing that a military solution is not the answer because South Korea, a key U.S. ally, will be severely affected if war breaks out on the divided Korean Peninsula.

Obama called the North "the most isolated, the most sanctioned, the most cut-off nation on Earth."

"The kind of authoritarianism that exists there, you almost can't duplicate anywhere else. It's brutal and it's oppressive and as a consequence, the country can't really even feed its own people," Obama said. "Over time, you will see a regime like this collapse."

Obama emphasized that the U.S. capacity to effect change in North Korea is limited because the communist nation has a 1-million-strong military as well as nuclear technologies and missiles. Moreover, South Korea would be "severely affected" if war breaks out, he said.

"So the answer is not going to be a military solution. We will keep on ratcheting up the pressure, but part of what's happening is that the environment that we're speaking in today, the Internet, over time is going to be penetrating this country," Obama said.

"And it is very hard to sustain that kind of brutal authoritarian regime in this modern world. Information ends up seeping in over time and bringing about change, and that's something that we are constantly looking for ways to accelerate," he added.

The North Korean foreign ministry bitterly criticized Obama's interview on Jan. 25, claiming that Obama's accusations (on North Korea) are "nothing but a poor grumble of a loser."

"We cannot but be shocked to find that Obama, president of a 'big country,' is so preoccupied with the inveterate repugnancy and hostility toward a sovereign state," a North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said, adding that "the recent wild remarks made by Obama are nothing but a poor grumble of a loser driven into a tight corner in the all-out stand-off with the DPRK.

"This is little short of admitting himself that the U.S. lacks ability to stifle the DPRK and that a military option is not workable," he asserted.

After a series of defeats in its military attempts to stifle the DPRK, the U.S. now turned to the Internet to undermine the DPRK through the "influx of information," the spokesman argued.

The spokesman said the U.S. is, however, gravely mistaken if it thinks it can break the single-minded unity of the DPRK, which it failed to do with sanctions and pressure, with the Internet and stressed that the more openly the U.S. presses for moves to undermine the DPRK, the stronger the single-minded unity of the DPRK will be.

Following Obama's interview, North Korea, in a show of power, staged a series of military drills guided by its leader, Kim Jong-un.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Jan.

27 that Kim Jong-un organized and guided a winter river-crossing attack drill of the armored infantry sub-units of the motorized strike group in the western sector of the front of the Korean People's Army (KPA).

The KCNA quoted Kim as stressing the importance of honing capabilities to mount a "deadly attack," saying a "powerful offensive means a rock-firm defense."

A set of photos released by the KCNA showed Kim watching the training and a couple of top military officials -- Hwang Pyong-so, director of the military's general political bureau, and Hyon Yong-chol, minister of defense -- directly leading it aboard a mobile artillery launcher and an armored vehicle.

Carrying a similar report, the (North) Korean Central Broadcasting Station described the U.S. as a deadly foe and claimed it blatantly revealed an ambition to topple the socialist system.

The drill followed a flight combat exercise of fighter and bomber groups under the Guards 1st Air and Anti-Air Division of the Air and Anti-Air Force of the KPA, which the KCNA said on Jan. 24 was also guided by Kim Jong-un.

 On Jan. 25, the National Defense Commission (NDC), Pyongyang's top ruling organ, warned of stern punishment against South Korea, accusing it of allowing the leaflet campaign and planning to start annual joint military drills with the U.S. in March.

Two days later, NDC made personal attacks on Obama again while criticizing the screening of "The Interview," a Sony Pictures movie that involves a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-un.

 An NDC statement claimed Obama is the chief culprit who forced Sony Pictures Entertainment to distribute the movie hurting the dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and said, "Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest."

In May, the White House condemned the North's personal attacks on Obama, which described the U.S. leader as a "monkey with a disgusting crossbreed appearance."

"While the North Korean government-controlled media are distinguished by their histrionics, these comments are particularly ugly and disrespectful," Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement.

On May 2, the KCNA carried a lengthy Korean-language diatribe against Obama, including comments purporting to have been made by a North Korean worker, a military officer and two other officials.

The North Korean worker called Obama "a monkey in Africa" with a disgusting "crossbreed appearance." He also said Obama should go to the home of monkeys before suffering further humiliation in the world of people.

The insulting comments -- which were apparently orchestrated by the county's propaganda machine -- came in response to Obama's comments critical of North Korea. (Yonhap)